Although Iris practiced forceful dual cultivation, it shared many similarities with the scythe's ability to drain life essence, therefore, she was sure that she could benefit greatly if she could absorb its innate insights.
Through the efforts of her little devils who were continuously growing in number, the total wealth of the Pink Devils exceeded two thousand high-quality spirit gems, and as the cult master, she carried half of that amount with her. Considering that this only took them a few months to gather, even Shui would be envious of this rate of growth despite his over ten thousand high-quality spirit gems. Another thing to note, was that a low-rank major-level force had an annual income of 500-1000 high-quality spirit gems, so both of them were truly reaping benefits from theft.
The bids for the sinister artifact started at fifty high-quality spirit gems, and went up by ten each time. The starting bids were mainly done for the fun or for the sake of collecting interesting items, so the bids slowed down once the price reached two hundred high-quality spirit gems.
It was at this time that Iris flipped the switch that was by her chair and said, "Two hundred and fifty."
As most were bidding casually, they pulled out once they saw that someone was serious about the artifact. However, Iris still had a competitor.
"Three hundred."
Iris couldn't tell who the bidder was since they were also in a private seating area, but the conceited tone reminded her of the little girl who had confronted her earlier. Since she practiced a demonic method similar to hers, it wouldn't be surprising if she wanted this artifact too.
'Not that I'm planning on giving up.'
"Three hundred and fifty."
"Four hundred."
The bidding war between the two pushed the price all the way to seven hundred high-quality spirit gems. Aria wore an ugly expression as she thought of how much the price had gone up, but she wasn't willing to miss this chance. Just like Iris, she was also looking for the path to Sky Realm, so she had to grab the opportunity that presented itself. She waited for her opponent to add another fifty high-quality spirit gems to the bid, but it never came. Right when she wondered if her opponent had given up, there was a loud explosion from one of the private seating areas.
"What?!"
"Intruder!"
From the dust caused by the explosion, Iris jumped out gracefully and landed in front of a private seating area, while a cloaked assassin watched her from within the dust. He had aimed for the moment when she was aggravated by the bidding war, but because she kept her guard up she was able to defend against his sneak attack.
'Tch, I don't like it, but if it wasn't for his warning...'
Iris had a bad taste in her mouth thinking about why she was prepared, but fortunately, there was already a target for her to vent her frustration. She dragged out a chain-sickle with a knife on the opposite end, that was hidden in her sleeves, and licked her lips while sending the assassin a ravenous look.
"Oh, I can't wait to eat you up."
Even though he couldn't hear what she said, the assassin felt a chill when he saw the look in her eyes. As an assassin, he knew that he should escape since he failed to kill her on the first try, but he couldn't risk losing this chance to his competition. And so, he resolved himself to go all-out.
After slightly leaning forward, the assassin vanished like a ghost and reappeared to the left of Iris. As his knife approached, he was certain that he would finish her this time. He wasn't sure how she was able to react to him the first time, but it wouldn't happen again, after all, how could some vulgar prostitute be a threat?
However, right as he reappeared, Iris' knife was just about to pierce his chest.
"!"
He quickly brought up his barrier and backed away, but a line of blood had still been drawn on his chest. He wasn't wrong to assume that Iris' demonic method wasn't very useful in battle, but just like she was strict on her son, she was also strict on herself.
From an early age, she learned a variety of weapons, and even after marrying into the Heaven clan, she secretly kept up her training. Furthermore, after becoming a demonic cultivator, she made a habit of wandering into danger zones to hone her skills. This moulded her into a beast that could devour her opponent in two meanings of the word.
Iris looked down at the assassin who glared back at her, and began spinning her sickle with a beautiful smile on her face.
"Don't die too fast."
Suddenly, the chain-sickle was covered in black fluid before she threw it at him. Like a lunging snake, the sickle went straight for him. He managed to dodge the curved blade, but then it turned around and continued attacking. This was the result of Iris manipulating the chain with both her mental control and precise energy adjustment.
Quickly realising that it was homing in on him, the assassin tried to offset it with his own spell. He fired a bolt of lightning that hit the sickle, but the current was contained around the blade, further increasing its lethality.
As the assassin was forced to continue dancing to evade the sickle, Iris chuckled at the sight. Right then, an arrow was loosened and flew straight for her temple, but this attempt also ended in failure. Since she knew how many assassins were after her, she hadn't allowed herself to be engrossed in battle so her ability to respond to surprise attacks was still high.
After the arrow was deflected by the barrier she created, Iris spun her knife and launched it in the direction of the arrow. The one who had shot her wasn't dumb enough to stay in the same place, so he was gone before her knife could get to him. However, when he tried to find a new shooting position, a bolt of lightning came for him.
"Damn you!"
It may have been considered an unfair move, but the first assassin refused to let his prey be taken by the newcomer. The second assassin was forced to stop in place in order to repel the lightning strike, which left an opening for Iris to exploit. She sent the knife after him once more, this time successfully capturing his left leg.
"Don't be shy, join in!"
Now, during this battle, many wondered what the security personnel were doing, including the auction's management. It was a few minutes after the start of the sudden battle that they found the unconscious bodies of the guards. As even the backup guards had been incapacitated, it was obvious that there was an enemy hiding among them, but they didn't have time to smoke them out. With every second of inactivity that passed by, the reputation of the dark auction went down. Even if they couldn't fight off the assassins with Iris, they had to ensure that the rest of their guests were safe.
"Everyone, please be at ease and follow the staff member closest to you."
Before this announcement spread, several VIPs had already begun preparations to leave. Some escaped as soon as there was trouble while others stayed for the show that Iris and the assassins were putting on. By some coincidence, two important figures and their guards were watching the fight next to each other. These two also happened to be the other two targets of the underground guild's rank-up exam.